<p>Mis would be great for qa, ba, pm roles. My job is a hybrid between tier two and three help desk and system administrator and i think my degree was great for this. We also with very closely with the qa, ba, and pm teams on system releases and ungrades.</p>
<p>I always see job openings for that kind if position on career builder. </p>
<p>We had two IS tracks available at my college. One for end user support and one for development. The dev one took extra programming and networking courses. All of the people i graduated with in that track are working in networking or are programmers. The people in my track mostly do support. </p>
<p>That being said, i also freelance as a Web designer and developer. I’ve contemplated moving into development at my work. It’s been awhile since I’ve played with a non Web based language but i think if i started doing it all I’d have to do I’d learn a new syntax since object oriented programming is based on the same concepts. We will see what the future has in store.</p>
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<p>I have yet to come across a Quality Assurance job listing that did not require (in the job posting) almost as much technical skills as a programmer, engineer, etc… I really don’t know where you guys are finding all these supposedly entry-level non-technical IT jobs that do not require technical proficiency.</p>
<p>It’s not like MIS grads have no Technical proficiency. We’re not completely un technical… Well, I’m speaking for myself here… nobody is saying an English major who knows how to type up a story in word but nothing beyond that should go post for IT positions. But if you’ve taken courses on programming, databases, networking, etc… Why not?</p>
<p>And most job descriptions are made to sound extra hard to “scare” people out of posting so they get a good list of well qualified applicants who are confident in their abilities. You may not need everything they are asking for in the posting. Ask someone that does hiring. That being said, just because someone has sold video games at game stop doesn’t mean they should be applying too be a developer for blizzard. </p>
<p>If you’re in qa and writing automation scripts sure you need additional technical skills… But to run those scripts created by someone else and find defects… Or to write test plans… You may not need as much technical knowledge… You may need more business knowledge on what the expected outcome is and what steps must be taken to rectify the issue. I’m sure its different from place to place.</p>
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<p>MIS majors should have some foundation in programming and technology, but we are not involved in the hardcore IT stuff. We are more of a translator. We translate information from IT to Management to figure out what is needed for IT systems. It is a great major if you want to combine business and IS. At my school we have to take a 4 credit hour course in “Programming and Problem Solving” as well as a systems maintenance course (3SH). We also take various mgt courses that involve MIS disciplines. We are also required to take specialization courses. I plan on taking the courses involving Cisco networking, because once you complete them you can be certified in Cisco, which is in demand.</p>
<p>I just wanted to thank everyone for your input and detailed responses, they were VERY helpful and I appreciate it. I ended up taking MIS classes for a semester at my school and talked with a lot of different people in my classes as well. I decided to go in a different direction for my undergrad.</p>
<p>I agree 100% with GoalsOriented. I was almost stuck doing MIS but I’m glad I didn’t. For most of the jobs you may want, they prefer a CS degree. A Network Administrator requires a CS degree. Why? I don’t know. Maybe because it’s in demand like people have said. </p>
<p>BA’s do require some technical knowledge because while they may be required to run scripts and do some debugging or testing, a strong programming knowledge helps that out tremendously. A Business Analyst must be able to make software recommendations for people and design the solutions. Most BA positions I’ve seen require you to know Case Diagraming, Databases, SQL, and be able to quantative analysis very well. MIS does not prepare for the heavy analytical thinking as much as programming does because the programmers are the one who live analysis! </p>
<p>The thing is though I’ve seen Business Analysts come from Economics, Accounting, Management, and all sorts of other backgrounds. That’s not to say that the good jobs should be limited to CS majors but it’s hard to write system specs for a program when you don’t know the first thing about a Business Requirement Document or a Use Case Diagram. These are things you learn in CS classes but not in MIS courses. I don’t know why MIS does not include these courses into their curriculum. They’re essentially for even the most business-oriented MIS major.</p>
<p>I’m very confused by the above post.</p>
<p>In my IS program we did databases, sql, c++, php, networking, business analysis, workforce computing, did tons of use cases and created every type of chart possible, a ton of gantt charts, hardware and software architectute, process flows, etc… And i wasnt even in the development track. They took even more programming and networking… By the time i graduated i wanted to beg Microsoft to discontinue visio!! </p>
<p>If you’re not getting these things out of an IS program then i agree it’s not a very good program.</p>
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<p>I’m sure it depends on the program. When I was in MIS, I only had two Java classes and an Object Oriented Concepts class, the rest were business courses. I had the choice to take about 4 electives from CS but that’s about it. Four computer courses is not enough to claim any sort of specialty.</p>
<p>@Fender: Did you guys learn about the software development cycle or take any Calculus classes?</p>
<p>Yes to sdlc and we took business calc which was basically very similar to the calc i took in high school but with a focus of how it is applied for businesses. </p>
<p>We even did assembly language programming.</p>
<p>This was part of why i picked my school. A lot of hands on projects and different things were studied. I also did an internship as an analyst and my php/web dev prof got me a freelance Web development job. I would say my program was probably 40 percent computer stuff and sixty percent business. I also graduated eight years ago so it probably has changed a bit as far as what’s offered. I keep in touch with the people i graduated with and we are all in IT jobs. Business analysts, project managers, system admin, help desk, and some are developers or architects.</p>
<p>I’m not a developer at work but i do write sql for my team and work closely with the dba team and Dev team on things because i have the IS technical background.</p>
<p>I think people really need to investigate the major itself as well as the school to make sure it will prepare you for what you want to do as a job.</p>
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